A History of Hellby Melvyn Bragg

You have to believe me that we did not sit down and decide to do hell
before
Christmas on principle, or out of a sense of devilish fun, or anything
else.
It just fell out that way.

Perhaps the most famous comment now about hell is from Sartre -
“hell is
other people”. Hell itself in most of our culture has gone from a
place
where you can “freeze in hell” (because the religions which
bred it came out
of hot climates) until you could “burn in hell” (when
religion moved north).
I thought you might like a few gobbets from the notes of the
contributors.
Martin Palmer talked about what he called developing hell scenarios.
This is
what he told us as part of our research:

“During the inter-testamental period (the time between the
completion of
writing the Old Testament and the writing of the New Testament,
250BC-50AD)
there was a period of growth in belief in the Judeo and Christian world
of
hell or Gehenna, but still in very vague terms. Around the 4th
century,
worldwide, and amongst many of the main religions: Christianity,
Judaism,
Buddhism and Taoism, there was suddenly an astonishing growth in
graphic
depictions of hell. These depictions were very detailed with specific
tortures allocated to specific crimes which they often had in common
with
each other: if you had ever looked lustfully at a woman you would have
your
eyes pecked out in hell; if you had been a glutton your liver would be
picked
out; if you had done false dealings your hands would be cut off,
repeatedly,
for eternity and the stumps then dipped in lead. These ideas of hell
moved
away from the basic conception of hell as something to be saved from,
developing into titillating stuff that was graphic, exciting,
pornographic
across all major faiths.

Something which the major faiths had in common, beyond the sudden
blossoming
of graphic detail amongst their depictions of hell, was the common theme
of
the story of a journey going down into the underworld. In
Zoroastrianism
there is the journey of Arda Viraf, in many ways the prototype of all
the
later stories of journeying through hell or hells. This story was
enormously
popular in the Middle East for 1000 years but it is difficult to date
exactly, estimated at around 150-200AD. After this came the Apocalypse
of
Paul a story which was immensely popular and which almost made it into
the
New Testament, appearing in it early on but dropped by about 500AD.
The
Apocalypse of Paul describes an incredibly dramatic journey down into
hell
where all the various scenes of hell are depicted. This story almost
certainly shaped Dante’s thinking and because it was thought to
have been
written by the Apostle, Paul, it carried a certain authority.

In every major faith we find this story of the descent into hell
cropping up
again and again. In Buddhism it is Sudhana who goes down into the
hells, and
in Islam there are accounts of the Prophet Mohammed going down into the
hells
as a counterpoint to his journey up to heaven from Jerusalem. In
Chinese
religion, Taoism, hell is described as an ‘Earth Prison’
and this reveals a
theme which runs through all faiths except perhaps Christianity. This
is the
notion that hell is somewhere where souls are held until they have paid
off
their debt of guilt and sin so that they may be released either into
heaven
or into purgatory. Christians, on the other hand, would tend to stay
there
forever but some strands do have a theme that a soul can be saved by
intercession and prayer.”

Martin was also extremely clear about the origins of that great phrase
“the
harrowing of hell”. The notes say:

“The most common depiction in Anglo-Saxon art is the harrowing of
hell, in
the Apostle’s Creed which contains a very interesting phrase which
says
“Christ descended into hell and on the third day he rose
again”. The whole
mythology of the harrowing of hell is Christianity’s grappling
with the
question of where Christ went when he died. It is the only picture that
the
Orthodox Church will show of the resurrection: Christ harrowing hell.
According to the story, Christ breaks down the gates of hell which form
the
shape of the baptismal font and he brings light and joy into hell.
Christ
raises Adam and all the just men of the past, regardless of what they
have
done and brings them to paradise. He raises Eve, and all the just women
of
the past, regardless of what they have done and brings them to paradise.

Christ is forced to leave hell when the devil makes a plea to God that
this
is not really fair.”

So there we are! After which, the only thing to say is Merry Christmas.